founds postcards of the day

This time someone gave me two nice ones. Enjoy the show...

Hiroshima Yeah! # 111 (May 2014) (zine)

A  monthly 8.5 by 11 inches black and white, cut and paste, five pager,a mighty impressive zine if you ask me. There`s  a beautiful logo cover drawing by virtually unknown Montreal artist: François Marceau. Let`s begin with poetry to read as  `the dreams malfunction`. I admire Mark`s poems. Here`s a couple which caught my attention:

Hypocrites

Most of us are hypocrites

In one way or another:

The leather wearing vegetarian

The homophobic homosexual

The intolerant liberal.

Nothing is as simple

As it may appear.

And our contradictions

Make us human.

And

Easy trap

It`s an easy trap to fall into:

Torturing yourself

By replaying awkward moments

Instead of pleasant ones.

But try to remember this:

Most of the time,

Other people are too wrapped up

In their own lives

To give a flying fuck

About you.

Regarding the poem `hypocrites`I could also add the following:

The pervert preaching about abstinence

Intolerant people giving lessons in tolerance

Disrespectful assholes demanding respect

Corrupt politicians giving honesty lessons

Liars hating …liars

The world is so full of various hypocrites, look around man. Next there`s  Gary Simmons insane monthly ramblings about `1.5 years on probation`. After reading this I almost feel normal here. We have a plethora of music, concert (Withered Hand – CCA, Glasgow, 18-04-2014), book and zine reviews. Kudos for the `Minimal Frank – imaginary soundtracks`CD review. 

We finish reading the zine with some short stories from: Rob Hayler`s `Leeds zine fair – Wharf Chambers, Leeds, 16-03-2014` (wish I was there), Gary Simmon`s `last 48 hours of Kurt Cobain` (what the hell is this stuff department) and Mark Ritchie`s `driving away`(drink + sleep and drive after getting sober i.e good idea). Contact address: 

Mark Ritchie

94 Main Street

Forth

Lanark

ML11 8AB

UK

Hiroshima Yeah! # 110 (April 2014) (zine)

A 8.5 by 11 inches black and white, cut and paste, monthly, five pager zine. We open things up with poetry from `the absence pit. More amazing poems from  the man himself: `Mark Ritchie`. My favorites include:

Words gathering dust

All those words we wrote,

Filling up boxes,

Bags,

Cupboards,

Garages:

Where did all those words get us?

Did they make us rich?

Happy?

Slightly less  alone?

Or where they all for nothing?

Merely a waste of space,

Time and effort?

All those words we wrote

They seemed so vital at the time

Are now simply

Words gathering dust.

And also;

Here  Forever

I`ll be here forever,

Through drunkenness,

Through embarrassment,

Pity,

Shame,

Lust,

Lost loves.

I`ll be here forever

Because some of us

Have nowhere else to go.

Good stuff, it makes you recall those forgettable nights of drunken oblivion. Next there`s a plethora of music and book reviews. Gary Simmons writes his monthly installment of``the great rock`n`roll tolchock` (he`s out of jail but unfortunately still on probation). There`s a picture of Gary inside. Man I`m jealous he`s got hair!!! I`m at the ripe old age when you have hair growing everywhere except on your head. And no I mean the thinking head on top, not the receptive one downstairs dumbass!!! There`s more poems from the likes of Mitch Hell, and some short stories by Kyle Nonneman, Gary Simmons and head honcho Mark Ritchie. Contact address: Mark Ritchie

94 Main Street

Forth

Lanark

ML11 8AB

UK

Shy Rights Movement – self-mythologisers anonymous (CD)

This is Mark Ritchie`s  (Hiroshima Yeah! Zine)  solo music project.  There`s ten songs on this here CD. The music consists mostly of acoustic / electric guitar mixed with some singing and some percussive elements now and then. After listening to a lot of experimental  music and tons of harsh, ear ripping noise this is definitely what the doctor ordered. An  easy listening (ear candy material) and highly relaxing album. Now you`re thinking folk music I bet. Not at all brothers  and sisters. This is intimate, foreboding, melancholic, lo-fi, stripped to the bone (guitar + vox + sometimes percussions) music. You can feel various influences at work: Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Dylan, Terry Lee Hale, Johnny Cash and perhaps Eric`s Trip (the isolationist side of things maybe).. I love this album. It`s a good mixture of indie (I mean that in a good way, for once), stylish, lavish, folk (more urban than rural, groovy baby!!!) with lots of country elements at work (Neil Young anyone?). My personal favorite song is `what we become`. A haunting, country ballad with wailing, almost slide guitar i(extremely hypnotic material) . The perfect track for broken hearted lonely hearts club band people out there (forget The Beatles this is the real thing). I highly recommend this album. I`m not saying this because Mark gave `Minimal Frank`s `(my solo project) latest full length an amazing review I owe you one bro, just kidding ).  Contact address: 

Mark Ritchie

94 Main Street

Forth

Lanark

ML11 8AB

UK

                                           

Art is everywhere part 16

This time around I have some flyers, mail art and a weird collage from Truman Bentley Jr. Enjoy the show!!!

Redrot – the red death (cassette)

This is a short tape (40 minutes)  from Ryan Oppermann`s  death industrial solo project: Redrot. There`s four tracks on this here album. And what does it sounds like you might ask? Here`s a brief description, just to give you a small idea (of what to expect ):

1- self denied (9.12 minutes): harsh low-fi frequencies + processed screams = definitely going into headache territory.

2- knife in my head (9.18 minutes): processed voice \ rhythm + repetitive, meditative distortion.

3- glorious (8.28 minutes); extremely processed voice + power electronics = bleak atmospheres for suicidal tendencies (not talking about the band here).

4- the red death (9.59 minutes): nasty industrial synth lines + more processed voice = conjures feelings of isolation, loneliness and intellectual \ moral decay. If you`re into power electronics, death industrial and experimental music this is definitely your cup of tea. In my case I`d say my pitcher of beer, ah, ah, ah. More information here:  www.chondriticsound.com/

HHR VS 2XH Volume 1 – where is my robotic boot (CD`s)

I recently got this as a trade item. This is a  long, double CD compilation  of underground artists \ bands . I enjoyed  listening to this because it gave me a  chance to discover some amazing bands with a lot of different music styles (2 CD`s and 17 songs will get you there for sure). Let`s see there`s Kid606 (noise + digitalism + lotsa beats = total mayhem), Final (dark unsettling synth), Shifts (ambient noise minimalism),  Stephan  O` Malley (ritualistic minimalism),  Craig Dongoski (weird, out there experimentations), Tribes Of Neurot (this sounds like crazy ass, dark carnival music), Merzbow (meditative noise bursts),  Monotonos (peaceful, ambience), Kid606 (meditative peaceful electronics), Jan Michael Vincent Car Crash (heavy metal), Orthrelm (intense, instrumental & experimental metal), The Austerity Program (old school punk), Khanate (dark metal experimentations), The Abandoned Hearts Club (hardcore punk), Gezoleen (hard, hard metalcore), Phantomsmasher (instrumental & experimental metal) and  Jan Michael Vincent Car Crash (instrumental heavy metal). Good stuff indeed. I highly recommend it if you can still find it (undated). More information here: www.hydrahead.com